Daytona's Museum - plagued by criminals?

I took Jacob and the rest of the kids on a field trip to the Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences today. My mom came along to help keep the girls busy while I tried to teach the boys and also because I didn't really want to make the 2 hour drive on my own.

We have a membership to the local museum, and as a part of that membership, we also get deals to other museums. I checked the listing and sure enough, the Daytona museum was covered. We were to get a free membership for all members of the household to their museum...that is the recipricol deal that they have listed in the paperwork and it is supposed to be good through April 30. I printed it off to be sure I would have no problems when I got there.

So, we drive the two hours and I show my card and am immediately told, "Sorry, we don't take that". I brought out the paperwork I printed off and showed her that according to their recipricol agreement, they are supposed to take it...I showed her what the paper said the agreement was. She told me to hold on a minute and showed my card to another person who showed her yes, they do take it, but according to her, the deal is a discounted admission. She told my mother since she was 65 or older she could get the sr. citizen discount (she was a little disgusted about that one seeing as she is not in her 60's at all, and she actually doesn't even look like she has hit 50). And then for Jacob they charged the regular child's admission. I asked her why this was the case and she said it is because it is a special event. So I asked her what special event was going on and she said it was the Egypt exhibit...well, that was exactly what we had gone to see, so I didn't argue with her right then. On the way home though, I looked at a billboard and checked the brouchure. Their "special event" has been going from mid-November and does not end until the last week of May. How the heck is that allowed to be something that will cause us to not get the recipricol admission as stated? So, she rings us up full price instead of the discounted price and I guess I look like I am a real idiot because she tells me the price and I tell her no way is it that much. "Oh, haha, sorry about that. Looks like you are right".

Then I asked if they allowed us to take photographs...She said no, so I had to check my camera at the desk. Ok, fine. But then my mother and I noticed on top of the tons of security cameras, we apparently deserved to have our own personal guard following us around. THAT ticked me off. I felt like a criminal...like we were wanting to take the encased goods? Give me a break! The majority of the things there were models of the actual artifacts and not the real thing.

Then we had a bunch of class tours going on. EVERY single time I would go to show Jacob something, this one tour leader would come directly to the exhibit we were looking at with her mob of kids. Jacob and I even skipped a few of them so we could go back to them, figuring she would go in order. Oh no, she would follow us. Sorry, but we purposely avoided where they were and did not interupt their groups, so we should have been given the opportunity to take our time looking at the exhibits we were trying to see.

Then we went across to the Root Family part of the museum. This family had a special on PBS a couple of months ago, real late at night, but I had no idea that their display was at this museum, so I was excited. They had hundreds of teddy bears displayed and tons of Coca Cola memorabilia. Our personal guard followed us around for a while and then my mom decided to make sure he knew we noticed him following us everywhere, so she asked him if he knew why they grouped the bears how they did. He was rude and said no, but he got the drift and left us alone for a few minutes. As we were walking out of that section, he went back to look around, I guess to see if we had broken one of the cases and stolen one of their precious teddy bears for the kids. {{Rolling Eyes}}

So, want to hear the best part? We go in the kiddie area, and it was ok...the kids had fun and were finally able to touch something, so they were happy. They had a bunch of tables set up for the kids and tons of toys for them to play with. At the second table, I saw the Magnetix toys that were recalled this past week. Keep in mind, there were stories around Christmas about children getting sick, and one child dying because he swallowed two of the magnets and they were so strong that it caused his intestines to close. So, as I am getting my camera back at the front desk, I tell the woman who rang us up that they have some recalled toys in the kids section, and explained that I had closed the boxes for them, but they may want to get them out of there before someone got hurt. So she runs over to tell the other woman who decided to give us the discounted admission prices and do you know what she tells me? "Those couldn't have been recalled. They were handmade". Ummm, yeah lady...and I am sure the legos and everything else in there are handmade too. So, I looked at her and told her she was crazy and even though they were supposedly handmade, it is still the same concept. I explained that it is there liability and they are the ones that are going to get sued when a kid dies because they didn't want to listen. So, she tried to hand me a card so I could talk to the curator of the museum, and I told her she could keep it, because I'm not calling long distance to save them a lawsuit. All they have to do is walk two rooms over and take the toy out of the room until proven safe.

Can you believe the way they acted? That last part ticked me off completely. I am writing a complaint letter to the curator (is that how you even spell it?) of that museum, to our local museum in which we have a membership, and the organization which runs the reciprical membership list (and anyone else I can find that may be interested in this information) and let them know I not only did not appreciate how we were treated, but how disgusted I am at what happened at the end. To sit there and act as ignorant as they did just disgusts me. I know there will be no more patronizing of that museum by us.